Yeah. This kind of experience makes you wonder why on earth you bother to go the cinema anymore. Not that I'm quitting the theatrical experience, but sometimes watching films at home is far more satisfying.

It's getting to be a chore just to see beside people at any screenings. I personally have always loved musicals, but I know it's a welcome opportunity for jackass to make aloud comments. Horror movies or thriller stuff is even harder to sit through with an audience. Kids are always shouting out stuff or laughing etc.

I just recently saw and enjoyed Alpha Dog with the exception of a group of asshole kids who were just there because Justin Timberlake was in it. They laughed or mocked several scenes including a brutal killing. Guess they didn't get the point of the film.

But I've heard as many stupid things from adults in audiences. I still love going to the cinema, but it's certainly gotten worse as far as respect etc. Don't get me started on cell phones...

It's getting to be a chore just to see beside people at any screenings. I personally have always loved musicals, but I know it's a welcome opportunity for jackass to make aloud comments. Horror movies or thriller stuff is even harder to sit through with an audience. Kids are always shouting out stuff or laughing etc.

I just recently saw and enjoyed Alpha Dog with the exception of a group of asshole kids who were just there because Justin Timberlake was in it. They laughed or mocked several scenes including a brutal killing. Guess they didn't get the point of the film.

But I've heard as many stupid things from adults in audiences. I still love going to the cinema, but it's certainly gotten worse as far as respect etc. Don't get me started on cell phones...

I know! People can be idiots. As soon as I get a big-screen TV or a good projector, I'm going to seriously cut back on my trips to the cinema. It's getting way too expensive anyway!

__________________"Compared to her I'm just some bland, flappy hausfrau."

Got to see Norbit last night. Very hilarious. Was a little leery at first about another Eddie Murphy movie where he plays multiple characters, but turned out really well. The make-up effects used for turning him into Rasputia were done really really well. One downside, Cuba Gooding Jr. has a supporting part in it, lucikly though, he was not meant to be like in it.

Got to see Norbit last night. Very hilarious. Was a little leery at first about another Eddie Murphy movie where he plays multiple characters, but turned out really well. The make-up effects used for turning him into Rasputia were done really really well. One downside, Cuba Gooding Jr. has a supporting part in it, lucikly though, he was not meant to be like in it.

After watching Eddie Murphy's Delirious and two back-to-back interviews on the DVD and BET respectively, I've garnered a lot more appreciation for his humor. I originally wanted to see Norbit but then felt it might be a dud. Thanks for the reinforcement.

I watched Mike Judge's new movie, Idiocracy, yestereday. It comes out on DVD on the 9th. Really funny. Check it out! It's about Luke Wilson who plays and 'Average Joe' who partakes in an army experiment for human hibarnation. He was only supposed to be in it for a year, but unbeknowest to him thing's went wrong and he wakes up in 2505. And he finds society is so dumbed down via commercialization and what-not that he is now the smartest man alive and must save the world.

Watched this tonight. Pretty funny premise. Although it was populated with basically four or five running jokes, the humor sustained. Luke Wilson did his usual straight-man routine--mildly incredulous, happily bored. I'm not sure how well this would have done in theaters, but I thought it was funny and would recommend it.

I'm always pretty hesitant about a movie that has a 10% rating on rottentomates.

Me too, but I like to use the My Critics feature to cut down on the critics I never agree. Norbit earned a My Critics score of 50%, as did Hannibal Rising, so it sounds like it could either way as to whether I like it or not.

I'm not really in the "Hitchcock is great" camp. He's introduced cinema to many great themes and techniques, but its taken more experimental filmmakers, with greater freedom and creativity to make great films from his great concepts. THE TENANT and BODY DOUBLE are, by comparison, much more interesting films than Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW. Had Hitch more freedom from studio sterility, then perhaps his works would age better, but to me many of them seem too reserved to really leave an impact. That said, I still enjoyed NOTORIOUS, but not quite the way I'd hoped.

I'm not a Del Toro fan. At all. The man has an eye for creature design, but really, whether he's making horror sequels, comic book extravaganzas or Important Statements About Franco's Regime, he's still just one big horror geek. What he's essentially done with PAN'S LABYRINTH is take all the subtleties of great anti-Franco Spanish works like THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE and ANNA AND THE WOLVES and transformed it into obvious, critic-friendly allegory. It is this attempt to pander to the mainstream that makes this weaker than usual for Del Toro.

I'm not really in the "Hitchcock is great" camp. He's introduced cinema to many great themes and techniques, but its taken more experimental filmmakers, with greater freedom and creativity to make great films from his great concepts. THE TENANT and BODY DOUBLE are, by comparison, much more interesting films than Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW. Had Hitch more freedom from studio sterility, then perhaps his works would age better, but to me many of them seem too reserved to really leave an impact. That said, I still enjoyed NOTORIOUS, but not quite the way I'd hoped.

I like De Palma as much as the next guy, but Body Double is just hilarious, I can't compare it to Hitchcock with a straight face at all. Most of De Palma's thrillers are just taken from Hitchcock blueprints, with a few modern camera techniques thrown in. Polanski, on the other hand, is brilliant, and many of his earlier films could be deemed as modern-day Hitch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhett

I'm not a Del Toro fan. At all. The man has an eye for creature design, but really, whether he's making horror sequels, comic book extravaganzas or Important Statements About Franco's Regime, he's still just one big horror geek. What he's essentially done with PAN'S LABYRINTH is take all the subtleties of great anti-Franco Spanish works like THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE and ANNA AND THE WOLVES and transformed it into obvious, critic-friendly allegory. It is this attempt to pander to the mainstream that makes this weaker than usual for Del Toro.

I'm not a big fan either, outside of Cronos, but I loved Pan's Labyrinth. I can see the parallels with The Spirit of the Beehive, but I'd say Beehive is a more alienating experience, one that is probably MUCH more personal to the director and to people who lived in that era than someone who didn't. I'm sure most people, myself included, can identify with PL much easier, as even without the setting, one can reminisce on being a child in a bad situation where imagination lets you escape.

Most of De Palma's thrillers are just taken from Hitchcock blueprints, with a few modern camera techniques thrown in.

De Palma did a lot more than just update camera techniques. He took Hitch's themes and exposed them for what they were - turning them over to reveal the dark underbelly of waht before had been passed off as thrilling entertainment. De Palma knows in REAR WINDOW, when James Stewart pulls out longer and longer lenses when Grace Kelly is over, that he isn't just pulling out longer and longer lenses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KamuiX

I'm sure most people, myself included, can identify with PL much easier, as even without the setting, one can reminisce on being a child in a bad situation where imagination lets you escape.

That was part of my problem with the film, and part of the reason why I did enjoy it somewhat. I thought Del Toro was again marginalizing his creativity by trying to tone down his visuals for a mass crowd to easily identify with. At the same time though, for sure, the way he evokes the power of a child's imagination to heal in times of hardship are definitely the film's finest moments. Interesting, too, when you compare the opposite effects that fantasy has on Ana in BEEHIVE and Ofelia in PL.

I like De Palma as much as the next guy, but Body Double is just hilarious, I can't compare it to Hitchcock with a straight face at all. Most of De Palma's thrillers are just taken from Hitchcock blueprints, with a few modern camera techniques thrown in.

This statement is truth. Truth I tell you. The damn truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth.